Friday, February 11, 2011

Egypt: History Being Made

Whatever ultimately happens in Egypt, today’s overthrow of Mubarak is historical. Monumental. Maybe it’s actually a military coup that’s disguised as a popular uprising, as this article says. Maybe Egypt will end up being ruled by the Muslim Brotherhood or some other badass America-hating terrorist organization.

Whatever.

Eighty million Egyptians have overthrown their 30-year dictator. The same thing has already happened in Tunisia. It might happen soon in Jordan, Yemen, Syria and other Arabic countries. And there’s a new country — South Sudan.

“The times they are a-changin’.”

“Something’s happening here and you don’t know what it is, do you, Mr. Jones.”

I don’t claim to know. It’s not for us to know, or worry about, or start pointing fingers and screaming about “Who lost Egypt?!?” The toothpaste is out of the tube. The world has changed.

“Don’t try to hold back the hands of the clock; they’ll pull your arms off.”

Songbird “John” McCain says these falling dominoes are a “virus” spreading throughout the Middle East. Other rightwing jackwagons are saying Obama “let this happen.” “This wouldn’t have happened” if we had a Republican in the White House.

Millions of other Americans are seeing this Middle Eastern firestorm only in terms of “what does this mean for America?” “How does this affect me?”

And each and every one of them can go perform an unnatural act on their parental units.

I feel like this whole Egypt situation has revealed a lot about the minds of American conservatives...freedom and democracy are fine for people in the Third World only as long as it doesn't inconvenience us in any way.

The linked story poses the question, what next? Its bottom line is, nobody knows.

That's rightfully anxiety producing for Egyptians. It wrankles conservatives here because: 1, they don't relate well to situations where they can't immediately identify what they consider the good guys and the bad guys; 2, Obama handled the situation about as well as any U.S. president could; and 3, somehow, this upheaval might end up costing their beloved deep-pockets backers some money, ticking them off.

What the Egyptian military should do is call on the U.N., maybe the Arab League, too, to come in, help set up and oversee elections. That will give the people something to look forward to and work on, and reassure them things are headed in the direction they wanted.

In the meantime, the military needs to get the country out of chaos mode and back to as close to normal as possible. The military leader(s) should get a plan, fast, and give daily briefings on it followed by press conferences where they answer questions as openly and honestly as is humanly possible.

There's a real bright side, even to the uncertainty. It seems clear no one was or is plotting to immediately exploit this situation, not within Egypt or outside the country. That's a rare thing.

Hmmmm... if the Egyptian people can overthrow their government... who says it can't happen here!

Just kidding about that first part, but I have to think there are some on the far right who are into the lock-and-load second-amendment-remedy let's-have-a-revolution mindset who certainly must find the Egyptian revolution inspiring! After all, they overthrew a dictator! And Obama is also a brutal dictator, right? Heh!

Just kidding about that too.

I just hope things go well in Egypt for the peoples' sake.

I agree with what MRMacrum said about Obama. No way can they (or should they) "blame" him for what has happened in Egypt.